17 March 2007

Council of Ministers. The reform of criminal trials.

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“There’s some good news: Minister Padoa Schioppa has presented the so-called quarterly cash report that is an analysis of the revenues coming into the government coffers in these months and the money going out for the needs of the State. It’s a useful tool to check up on the public finances. The public debt is on the road to going down. This is positive. The government measures in these months have given fruit and the debt is lower and thus there is the expectation of a better economic position. The fiscal revenues: an extra 8,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000 Euro extra have come into the State coffers, more than the amount forecast in the last Budget. We have discussed and continue to discuss even in Parliament, how to use this money. My opinion starts from a fact: if there is an increase in the amount coming in it means that there are people who have paid taxes. Thus the first to benefit should be those who pay taxes. I believe that there is already the information available to make a reduction in the tax burden, so that citizens can understand that if all pay taxes then everyone can save. This therefore is my proposal. An important decision taken today, relates to the reform of civil court proceedings. This time, even Mastella found he was in agreement with me. In relation to this measure, there’s been a strong commitment from Italia Dei Valori, thanks to the Undersecretary for Justice in that Ministry who is writing certain regulations for the reform of criminal trials, that will be discussed next week. We need to approve some norms to reduce the time frames of trials and to eliminate the many procedural appeals, the many exceptions to confuse things that are so often raised. The measure approved today contains a commitment of that kind. Another measure approved relates to the actions needed to stop the so-called Saturday night slaughters. These happen every week, especially among the young. With forty to fifty victims. It has been decided to take action in many ways: with repression and the increase in the penalties for those who commit offences, and in the field of regulations. There has been much debate, but a single solution has not been found on the limit of the alcohol level beyond which someone is considered to be inebriated. Initially it was proposed 0.2 grams of alcohol, half a glass of wine. But there’s the risk of saying everything and nothing. Half a glass of wine together with an ecstasy tablet is different from half a glass with a meal. This is why we have delegated the task of finding this figure to a technical team. We have also taken action to reinforce controls on the street and through the Minister of Youth Policies, on the distribution of information and highway code education, particularly at school, for the young people who are getting their driving licence but also for younger ones. This is the picture of today’s decisions. But there was a heavy atmosphere in the Council of Ministers. Often the President of the Council and the Minister of Foreign Affairs had to go out and we all understood that the reason was the negotiations, with the urgency and the necessary actions, for the liberation of the journalist Mastrogiacomo. We are all in support of the President of the Council Prodi, and of Minister D'Alema so that we can bring Mastrogiacomo back home before it is too late. “

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Information